Andrea Hussong | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (original) (raw)

Papers by Andrea Hussong

Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), 2017

Throughout adolescence, children of alcoholic parents (COAs) show rates of psychopathology and im... more Throughout adolescence, children of alcoholic parents (COAs) show rates of psychopathology and impairment across a range of domains that surpass those of non-COAs (Chassin,

Substance Use & Misuse, Jan 16, 2018

Background: Although numerous studies have examined parental influence on adolescent alcohol misu... more Background: Although numerous studies have examined parental influence on adolescent alcohol misuse, few have examined how adolescents impact parental behavior or the reciprocal nature of parent-adolescent behavior relative to alcohol misuse. Objectives: This study assessed bidirectional relationships between adolescent alcohol misuse and three alcohol-specific parenting behaviors (substance-specific monitoring, permissive communication messages about alcohol, and cautionary communication messages about alcohol). Methods: Data were from 1645 parent-adolescent dyads drawn from a longitudinal study spanning grades 6 through 10. A multivariate latent curve model with structured residuals was used to test study hypotheses. Results: One marginally significant result emerged (increased alcohol misuse leads to greater substance-specific monitoring) after accounting for underlying developmental processes. Conclusions: Though practical implications are limited based on the results of the study, further directions for research regarding study design and measurement are provided to more fully examine dynamic processes between parents and adolescents relative to alcohol use.

Journal of Adolescent Health, May 1, 2017

Purpose-Prior research has found that the protective effect of parental engagement on adolescent ... more Purpose-Prior research has found that the protective effect of parental engagement on adolescent smoking behaviors may be weaker if parents smoke. We examine parental influence on adolescent smoking using a Social Learning Theory framework. We hypothesize that adolescents are more likely to mimic parental smoking behavior if they perceive parents as being more engaged, and if the parent is the same gender of the adolescent. Methods-Hypotheses were tested using a diverse sample of 6,998 adolescents who were followed for seven waves (grades 6-12). Adolescent gender, time-stable and time-varying effects of parental engagement, adolescent perceptions of parental smoking, and interactions amongst the effects of these variables are tested using multilevel mediation models. We use a traditional measure of past three month adolescent smoking and a novel measure of smoking identity. Results-Parental smoking was associated with a developmental increase in adolescent smoking; time-stable and time-varying parental engagement protected against adolescent smoking. Whereas maternal engagement and smoking exerted independent and opposite effects with no moderation, time-stable paternal engagement moderated the effects of perceived paternal smoking on adolescent smoking outcomes. Parental smoking was more strongly associated with adolescent smoking outcomes when adolescent gender was congruent with parent gender. Conclusions-Even when parents smoke, parental engagement confers protection. Protective effects of engagement may be enhanced amongst parents who smoke through increased antismoking communication, particularly as adolescents reach the legal smoking age.

Behavioral Sciences

Sexual minority young adults (SMYAs), compared to heterosexual young adults (HYAs), are a uniquel... more Sexual minority young adults (SMYAs), compared to heterosexual young adults (HYAs), are a uniquely high-risk population for problematic substance use, a disparity perhaps exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study tested whether SMYAs had more problematic substance use than HYAs during the pandemic due to isolation and loneliness as well as lower family closeness. Participants (N = 141) aged 23–29 completed self-report surveys in 2014–2015 as college students and in the summer of 2021 as young adults (59% White, 26% Black/African American, 9% Asian/Middle Eastern, 6% Hispanic/Latino, and <1% American Indian/Alaska Native). Results of multivariate regression and multiple group path analyses did not support hypothesized effects—SMYAs did not have greater increases in problematic substance use compared to HYAs, isolation and loneliness were not significant mediators, and family closeness was not a significant moderator. However, SMYAs experienced a lack of social safety—increa...

Influential psychological theories hypothesize that people consume alcohol in response to the exp... more Influential psychological theories hypothesize that people consume alcohol in response to the experience of both negative and positive emotions. Despite two decades of daily diary and ecological momentary assessment research, it remains unclear whether people consume more alcohol on days they experience higher negative and positive affect in everyday life. In this preregistered meta-analysis, we synthesized the evidence for these daily associations between affect and alcohol use. We included individual participant data from 69 studies (N = 12,394), which used daily and momentary surveys to assess affect and the number of alcoholic drinks consumed. Results indicate that people are not more likely to drink on days they experience high negative affect, but are more likely to drink and drink heavily on days high in positive affect. People self-reporting a motivational tendency to drink-to-cope and drink-to-enhance consumed more alcohol, but not on days they experienced higher negative a...

Behavior Research Methods, 2020

In the current study, we used an analogue integrative data analysis (IDA) design to test optimal ... more In the current study, we used an analogue integrative data analysis (IDA) design to test optimal scoring strategies for harmonizing alcohol-and drug-use consequence measures with varying degrees of alteration across four study conditions. We evaluated performance of mean, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and moderated nonlinear factor analysis (MNLFA) scores based on traditional indices of reliability (test-retest, internal, and score recovery or parallel forms) and validity. Participants in the analogue study included 854 college students (46% male; 21% African American, 5% Hispanic/Latino, 56% European American) who completed two versions of the altered measures at two sessions, separated by 2 weeks. As expected, mean, CFA, and MNLFA scores all resulted in scales with lower reliability given increasing scale alteration (with less fidelity to formerly developed scales) and shorter scale length. MNLFA and CFA scores, however, showed greater validity than mean scores, demonstrating stronger relationships with external correlates. Implications for measurement harmonization in the context of IDA are discussed.

International Journal of Behavioral Development, 2019

The ubiquity of digital communication within the high-risk drinking environment of college studen... more The ubiquity of digital communication within the high-risk drinking environment of college students raises exciting new directions for prevention research. However, we are lacking relevant constructs and tools to analyze digital platforms that serve to facilitate, discuss, and rehash alcohol use. In the current study, we introduce the construct of alcohol-talk (or the extent to which college students use alcohol-related words in text messaging exchanges) as well as introduce and validate a novel tool for measuring this construct. We describe a closed-vocabulary, dictionary-based method for assessing alcohol-talk. Analyses of 569,172 text messages from 267 college students indicate that this method produces a reliable and valid measure that correlates as expected with self-reported alcohol and related risk constructs. We discuss the potential utility of this method for prevention studies.

Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2018

Our goal is to identify integrative themes in this special issue on "Parenting Adolescents in an ... more Our goal is to identify integrative themes in this special issue on "Parenting Adolescents in an Increasingly Diverse World". Specifically, we identify themes that may generalize largely from studies of marginalized families to guide American families more broadly as youth navigate an increasingly diverse world. We describe three broad diversity socialization goals that may foster greater intercultural maturity in youth. These include helping youth find their place and value in a multicultural world, increase the value that they place on others and decrease their fears of difference, and prepare to respond to biased or perceived rejection. And we offer five directions for future research to help build a path forward in this important area of study.

Addictive Behaviors, 2019

When generating scores to represent latent constructs, analysts have a choice between applying ps... more When generating scores to represent latent constructs, analysts have a choice between applying psychometric approaches that are principled but that can be complicated and time-intensive versus applying simple and fast, but less precise approaches, such as sum or mean scoring. We explain the reasons for preferring modern psychometric approaches: namely, use of unequal item weights and severity parameters, the ability to account for local dependence and differential item functioning, and the use of covariate information to more efficiently estimate factor scores. We describe moderated nonlinear factor analysis (MNLFA), a relatively new, highly flexible approach that allows analysts to develop precise factor score estimates that address limitations of sum score, mean score, and traditional factor analytic approaches to scoring. We then outline the steps involved in using the MNLFA scoring approach and discuss the circumstances in which this approach is preferred. To overcome the difficulty of implementing MNLFA models in practice, we developed an R package, aMNLFA, that automates much of the rule-based scoring process. We illustrate the use of aMNLFA with an empirical example of scoring alcohol involvement in a longitudinal study of 6,998 adolescents and compare performance of MNLFA scores with traditional factor analysis and sum scores based on the same set of 12 items. MNLFA scores retain

Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 2018

Although it is currently best practice to directly model latent factors whenever feasible, there ... more Although it is currently best practice to directly model latent factors whenever feasible, there remain many situations in which this approach is not tractable. Recent advances in covariateinformed factor score estimation can be used to provide manifest scores that are used in second-stage analysis, but these are currently understudied. Here we extend our prior work on factor score recovery to examine the use of factor score estimates as predictors both in the presence and absence of the same covariates that were used in score estimation. Results show that whereas the relation between the factor score estimates and the criterion are typically well recovered, substantial bias and increased variability is evident in the covariate effects themselves. Importantly, using covariate-informed factor score estimates substantially, and often wholly, mitigates these biases. We conclude with implications for future research and recommendations for the use of factor score estimates in practice.

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2019

Research documents that lability in parent-child relationships-fluctuations up and down in parent... more Research documents that lability in parent-child relationships-fluctuations up and down in parentchild relationships-is normative during adolescence and is associated with increased risk for negative outcomes for youth. Yet little is known about factors that predict lability in parenting. This study evaluated whether children's behaviors predicted lability in parent-child relationships. Specifically this study tested whether youth maladjustment (delinquency, substance use, internalizing problems) in Grade 6 was associated with greater lability (e.g., more fluctuations) in parents' warmth and hostility towards their children across Grades 6-8. The study also tested whether the associations between youth maladjustment and lability in parents' warmth and hostility were moderated by parents' internalizing problems. The sample included youth and their parents in two parent families who resided in rural communities and small towns (N = 618; 52% girls, 90% Caucasian). Findings suggest that parents' internalizing problems moderated the

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 2018

The current study examined whether an adolescent's standing within a school-bounded social networ... more The current study examined whether an adolescent's standing within a school-bounded social network moderated the association between depressive symptoms and substance use across adolescence as a function of developmental and demographic factors (gender, parental education, and race/ethnicity). Method: The sample of 6,776 adolescents participated in up to seven waves of data collection spanning 6th to 12th grade. Results: Results of latent growth models showed that lower integration into the social network exacerbates risk for depression-related substance use in youth, particularly around the high school transition, but social status acted as both a risk factor and a protective factor at different points in development for different youth. Findings also varied as a function of youth gender and parental education status. Conclusions: Together these fi ndings suggest that lower integration into the social network exacerbates risk for depression-related substance use in youth, particularly around the high school transition in general as well as just before the high school transition in those with lower parental education or just after the high school transition in males. Thus, the risky impact of social isolation appears more consistent across this period. Social status, however, showed a more varied pattern and further study is needed to understand the sometimes risky and sometimes protective effects of social status on depression-related substance use. (J.

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2018

Substance use & misuse, Jan 16, 2018

Although numerous studies have examined parental influence on adolescent alcohol misuse, few have... more Although numerous studies have examined parental influence on adolescent alcohol misuse, few have examined how adolescents impact parental behavior or the reciprocal nature of parent-adolescent behavior relative to alcohol misuse. This study assessed bidirectional relationships between adolescent alcohol misuse and three alcohol-specific parenting behaviors (substance-specific monitoring, permissive communication messages about alcohol, and cautionary communication messages about alcohol). Data were from 1,645 parent-adolescent dyads drawn from a longitudinal study spanning grades 6-10. A multivariate latent curve model with structured residuals was used to test study hypotheses. One marginally significant result emerged (increased alcohol misuse leads to greater substance-specific monitoring) after accounting for underlying developmental processes. Though practical implications are limited based on the results of the study, further directions for research regarding study design and...

Developmental psychology, Jan 20, 2017

According to family systems and life course theories, periods of intense change, such as early ad... more According to family systems and life course theories, periods of intense change, such as early adolescence, can disrupt stable family systems, leading to changes in family relationships. In this longitudinal study, we investigate 2 types of change in parental hostility and warmth toward their children during early adolescence (Grades 6 to 8)-developmental trends (linear declines) and lability (within-person fluctuations around developmental trends)-and their linkages to youth substance use and delinquency in Grade 9 (N = 618). We also test if the linkages between lability and youth risky behavior are moderated by youth gender. After controlling for between-person differences in level and developmental trends, we find greater lability (more fluctuations) in youth-reported parents' warmth and hostility are associated with greater youth delinquency, tobacco use, and polysubstance use initiation. The associations between youth-reported lability in mother and father hostility and pol...

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2017

This systematic review examines whether negative affect symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depression, and ... more This systematic review examines whether negative affect symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depression, and internalizing symptoms more broadly) predict subsequent adolescent substance use after controlling for co-occurring externalizing symptoms. Following PRISMA procedures, we identified 61 studies that tested the association of interest. Findings varied depending on the type of negative affect symptom and to some extent on the substance use outcome. The most consistent associations were evident for depressive symptoms, particularly as predictors of substance use composite scores. No clear association between anxiety and substance use or between internalizing symptoms and substance use was evident, and indeed these associations were as often negative as positive. Mixed findings regarding the depression-substance use association, however, also call for greater attention to potential moderating factors that may help define who, when, and in what context depression serves as an important risk factor for later substance use above and beyond risk associated with externalizing symptoms.

The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, Jan 20, 2016

Prior research has found that the protective effect of parental engagement on adolescent smoking ... more Prior research has found that the protective effect of parental engagement on adolescent smoking behaviors may be weaker if parents smoke. We examine parental influence on adolescent smoking using a social learning theory framework. We hypothesize that adolescents are more likely to mimic parental smoking behavior if they perceive parents as being more engaged and if the parent is the same gender of the adolescent. Hypotheses were tested using a diverse sample of 6,998 adolescents who were followed for seven waves (grades 6-12). Adolescent gender, time-stable and time-varying effects of parental engagement, adolescent perceptions of parental smoking, and interactions among the effects of these variables are tested using multilevel mediation models. We use a traditional measure of past 3-month adolescent smoking and a novel measure of smoking identity. Parental smoking was associated with a developmental increase in adolescent smoking and time-stable and time-varying parental engagem...

Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2014

The need for comprehensive analysis to compare and combine data across multiple studies in order ... more The need for comprehensive analysis to compare and combine data across multiple studies in order to validate and extend results is widely recognized. This paper aims to assess the extent of data compatibility in the substance abuse and addiction (SAA) sciences through an examination of measure commonality, defined as the use of similar measures, across grants funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Data were extracted from applications of funded, active grants involving human-subjects research in four scientific areas (epidemiology, prevention, services, and treatment) and six frequently assessed scientific domains. A total of 548 distinct measures were cited across 141 randomly sampled applications. Commonality, as assessed by density (range of 0-1) of shared measurement, was examined. Results showed that commonality was low and varied by domain/area. Commonality was most prominent for (1) diagnostic interviews (structured and semi-structured) for substance use disorders and psychopathology (density of 0.88), followed by (2) scales to assess dimensions of substance use problems and disorders (0.70), (3) scales to assess dimensions of affect and psychopathology (0.69), (4) measures of substance use quantity and frequency (0.62), (5) measures of personality traits (0.40), and (6) assessments of cognitive/ neurologic ability (0.22). The areas of prevention (density of 0.41) and treatment (0.42) had greater commonality than epidemiology (0.36) and services (0.32). To address the lack of measure commonality, NIDA and its scientific partners recommend and provide common measures for SAA researchers within the PhenX Toolkit.